THE recent release of Frederick May's String Quartet in C minor on CD and the premiere of Eric Sweeney's first string quartet later this autumn provide two good reasons to take a look at some of the music for this medium in the Contemporary Music Centre's library.

Among more than fifty string quartets in the collection one of the earliest, Frederick May's String Quartet in C Minor, has justly been described as a landmark in Irish composition. Written between 1935 and 1936 when the composer was trying to come to terms with increasing deafness, this dramatic and assured work is all the more remarkable in that it is one of the few chamber works he ever wrote. Although the Quartet has previously been recorded on LP and cassette, this is the first time it has been available on CD. Performed by the Vanbrugh Quartet and coupled with Aloys Fleischmann's Piano Quintet, the new release is part of the Naxos/Marco Polo Irish Composers Series.

Coming right up to date, the most recent addition to the string quartet collection is Eric Sweeney's first String Quartet, which was written for the Vanbrugh Quartet and is due to be premiered by them in October. Although the composer has previously written for string quartet (the Four Joyce Songs for soprano and string quartet from 1970, among others), this is his first full quartet. So why has he waited until now? 'I decided to wait until I had something I wanted to say', he explains. 'Each movement is based on an Irish theme but, as in Dance Music (1989), the way in which these themes are fragmented and developed gives an effect that is almost eastern, in a way'.

No article about Irish music for string quartet would be complete without mentioning Brian Boydell, the composer whose name has been associated with the genre for almost fifty years. Boydell has described the string quartet as 'the ideal musical medium because you can't get away with any tricks, it must be really good music'. Having composed numerous works in a wide variety of media, he still regards his three String Quartets (Op. 31, 1947; Op. 44, 1957; Op. 65, 1969) as 'the works I would save if everything else were lost', while his most recent work for string quartet, the Adagio and Scherzo (1994) can, of course, be heard on CMC's promotional CD, Contemporary Music from Ireland, Volume One.

In contrast, Michael Alcorn's 1994 work, The Old Woman of Beare, for string quartet and IRCAM signal processing workstation, gives a different dimension to the traditional string quartet line-up. In this piece, the composer uses electronics as 'a way of expanding the palette of sound in the quartet'. The importance of the interaction between the four players in a string quartet was the reason for the composer's decision to use live electronics rather than tape, 'to give a greater degree of flexibility and to enable the performers to react with the electronics in performance'.

The name of the Vanbrugh Quartet arises immediately in any discussion of Irish string quartet repertoire. As resident quartet to RTE, the Irish national radio and TV station, since 1986 and artists-in-residence at University College Cork since 1991, the Vanbrugh Quartet's strong commitment to supporting and playing music by Irish composers can be seen not only in their commissioning of new works, but also in their efforts to explore and record the existing repertoire. Their CD, Ceathrar (the Irish word for quartet), released by Chandos in 1994, contains early works by Brian Boydell and John Kinsella, as well as a recent quartet by Walter Beckett and Ian Wilson's first string quartet. The Quartet's cellist, Christopher Marwood, admits that 'there is a certain frisson about doing something for the first time. To be able to work with a composer and to see their reaction on hearing their piece for the first time is something very special.' For Jane O'Leary whose second string quartet, Mystic Play of Shadows, was recently premiered by the ensemble, they are 'wonderfully responsive performers. They give the music an energy and life of its own.' As she worked on the piece she imagined the Vanbrugh's interpretation. 'When they played it for me at Bantry House before the premiere it was just as I had heard it in my head!'

Among works currently in gestation, one to look out for is the third quartet from Ian Wilson, again written for the Vanbrugh Quartet. With two quartets already written and premiered (Winter's Edge, 1992 and The Capsizing Man and other stories, 1994), Ian Wilson is confident about his next venture. 'The string quartet medium can sometimes seem intimidating because of the weight of its history; but history is there to be learned from and ignored in equal measure, and for me this genre still holds many wonderful possibilities.'

The following works for string quartet are currently available in the CMC library:

Alcorn, Michael: The Old Woman of Beare (1994).

Armstrong, David: String Quartet (1975).

Barry, Gerald: String Quartet (1994).

Beckett, Walter: String Quartet No. 1 (1980).

Bodley, Seóirse: String Quartet (1968); String Quartet No. 2 (1992).

Boydell, Brian: String Quartet No. 1 Op. 31 (1947); String Quartet No. 2 Op. 44 (1957); String Quartet No. 3 Op. 65 (1969); Adagio and Scherzo for String Quartet Op. 89 (1991).

Byers, David: At the still point of the turning world (1981).

Clarke, Rhona: Magnificat (1990).

Climent, Angel: Festival Op. 18 (1990).

Corcoran, Frank: String Quartet No. 1 'Scenes from a Receding Past' (1976); String Quartet No. 2 (1979).

Cullivan, Tom: String Quartet in E flat (1995).

De Bromhead, Jerome: String Quartet No. 1 (1971); String Quartet No. 2 (1977).

Deane, Raymond: Embers (1973); Silhouettes (1981 rev. 1995).

Ó Duinn, Proinnsias: Quartet Op. 10 (1962).

Farhat, Hormoz: String Quartet No. 4 (1979); String Quartet No. 5 (1981).

Farrell, Eibhlis: String Quartet No. 2 (1977).

Gardner, Stephen: A Dream of Thaw (1990).

Gibson, John: String Quartet No. 1 (1969-73); String Quartet No. 2 (1976).

Gribbin, Deirdre: Chiaroscuro (1989).

Hellawell, Piers: The Still Dancers (1992).

Kelly, Mary: String Quartet (1989).

Kinsella, John: String Quartet No. 1 Op. 2 (1960); String Quartet No. 2 (1968); String Quartet No. 3 (1977); Synthesis (1987); String Quartet No. 4 (1991-93).

May, Frederick: String Quartet in C Minor (1935).

McLachlan, John: Two Lyric Sketches for String Quartet (1987 rev. 1991).

Morris, David: String Quartet (1991-92).

Mulvey, Gráinne: Reverie (1994).

O'Connell, Kevin: Three Studies for String Quartet (1979).

O'Leary, Jane: String Quartet (1983); Mystic Play of Shadows (1995).

O'Leary, Martin: String Quartet No. 1 (1984).

Potter, A. J.: Ceathairéad Téad [String Quartet].

Sweeney, Eric: String Quartet (1996).

Victory, Gerard: String Quartet Op. 28 (1963).

Volans, Kevin: White Man Sleeps, String Quartet No. 1 (1982-86); Movement for string quartet (1987); String Quartet No 2: Hunting : Gathering (1987); String Quartet No. 4: The Ramanujan Notebooks (1990); String Quartet No. 5: Dancers on a Plane (1993).

Wilson, Ian: Winter's Edge, String Quartet No. 1, Op. 21 (1992); The Capsizing Man and other stories, String Quartet No. 2, Op. 31 (1994).